Monthly Archives: April 2017

No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, especially when we start a new activity or a new hobby. The new owners of goldfish and other species make many mistakes when they get one. This list is intended to help new goldfish owners.

You will find here, in no particular order, 5 of the most frequent mistakes. Our friend Timothy over at one of our favorite fish blogs gives his take on the matter.

Mistake # 1: Using a jar or a small bowl

You should never keep goldfish in a jar. The goldfish, which live a very long time, become big and grow quickly when they have good living conditions. Also, they need a lot of space to swim, so a fairly consistent habitat is needed. They also produce a lot of waste, which means that you need a large amount of water to dilute and clean their waste and a large colony of good bacteria to change the waste into less harmful products. All this requires a bigger aquarium.

Mistake # 2: Feeding too much

Feeding your goldfish too much is harmful. They digest like some birds, this means that they eat and that the droppings happen less than a few min after. The goldfish is looking for food all day, and never really stops. This is why you should feed your goldfish in small quantities several times a day a day, rather than giving them plenty of food at one time. Too much food can both cause constipation and swim bladder disorders like bloating.

Mistake # 3: Too many in a tank

Goldfish need a lot of space and can pollute the water very quickly if not maintained. Therefore, be careful not to have your aquarium in a situation of overpopulation. The more goldfish, the more difficult and frequent the maintenance must be. Remember 40 liters of water per goldfish is a must. Overcrowding is often the cause of illness and death in the aquarium.

Mistake # 4: Not using a filter

An aquarium must have a filter that will work at all times, it is the center of the closed ecosystem in the aquarium. As mentioned earlier, goldfish produce a lot of waste, which pollutes the water in their aquarium. The filter maintains a colony of good bacteria that degrade fish waste to make them almost invisible. Sometimes we use a filter sold with the aquarium, but they are still insufficient capacity for goldfish, the filter must have a water flow of 5 times the volume of the aquarium per hour.